How do you feel on displaying your certification credentials on your badge?

Nurses General Nursing

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Nurses, How do you feel on displaying certification credentials on your badge or nurses who displays them on their id/work badge? I am proud of them because they were a lot of hard work and time but I also do not want to seem like a show-off.

Specializes in ER / ICU.

To each his own. You shouldn’t be made to feel like you’re somehow a show-off or know-it-all simply for expressing your pride in reaching a distinguished level of achievement. How you present yourself does. Sadly, people want to hide or cover up their badges for a variety of reasons, and in every hospital I have worked for (except one) they restricted the allowance of anything after RN on the badge. They also had strong restrictions on being reimbursed for additional credentials. Thats just more bureaucratic baloney we could discuss in another thread. Funny, you won’t see any of these forms of punishment being placed on the doctors. Instead they’re applauded in their achievements. So express yourself and be proud. It’s exactly what the hospital aims to take away from you.

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As a general rule, I'd say include RN plus the highest level of education (MSN for example would mean there is no need to also list ASN & BSN) and the highest certification that is relevant to current practice. I like to see certs like CCRN on a badge when I'm visiting my relative in the ICU. I know what it takes to get such a certification, so I see no reason why I should be rolling my eyes that the nurse chooses to display it.

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I'm proud and satisfied with my credentials. It wasn't a waste for me. I can earn a high salary

and work anywhere with my degree and nursing license combined.

Not true.

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Specializes in BSN, RN-BC, NREMT, EMT-P, TCRN.
58 minutes ago, Horseshoe said:

Not true.

Why not true?

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Specializes in Cardiac TCU /tele/SDU.
3 minutes ago, tacticool said:

Why not true?

I live and work in Cali. In the hospital I work in, no LPN/LVN can work in an acute setting. That’s probably why he said not true, cuz the LPN said she can work anywhere.

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
8 minutes ago, tacticool said:

Why not true?

the bolded words in the statement quoted and work anywhere is plainly untrue on any level. No one can claim to have the qualifications to work anywhere. It could be that the writer of the original statement is just saying that they have not had difficulty finding employment despite having the credentials.

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On 9/9/2019 at 9:03 AM, choksantos said:

Nurses, How do you feel on displaying certification credentials on your badge or nurses who displays them on their id/work badge? I am proud of them because they were a lot of hard work and time but I also do not want to seem like a show-off.

Our facility allows for:
(given name - first and last), (degree 1), (possible degree 2 - if non-clinical and relevant to role), professional licensure (if applicable).

Example:
(given name), MSN, RN

Certification is handled with an optional tag that is put behind your badge and displays the certification credentials *below* your photo ID badge. The certifications that my employer buys these tags for are certifications that count for ANCC Magnet...so things like CCRN, RNC, NE-BC, CNOR, etc. We don't get to display any "course certifications" (ACLS, TNCC, etc).

The show off thing shows up (lol) more in email in our institution. Some people list everything in their email signature when we have a "uniform signature format" template.

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Specializes in BSN, RN-BC, NREMT, EMT-P, TCRN.
19 hours ago, choksantos said:

I live and work in Cali. In the hospital I work in, no LPN/LVN can work in an acute setting. That’s probably why he said not true, cuz the LPN said she can work anywhere.

Thanks.

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On 9/14/2019 at 1:53 PM, klone said:

Just found it and read it. I left the thread even more confused than when I started it. I just don't understand.

If you don't mind me asking, how do you go about finding a thread someone is referring to without a link? I used the search bar and entered a few key words, the only words that made sense for me to enter anyway and I got 10,000 hits! Tried a couple different ways and I still got far more options than I could possibly review in my lifetime. Do you have any tips please?

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^^^^Hit on the user name and go find their activity.

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1 hour ago, Horseshoe said:

^^^^Hit on the user name and go find their activity.

oh! that makes sense. I think I wasn't thinking it was a thread that the person who referenced it had posted in, or necessarily someone else int his thread, if I'm making sense. I'll try your approach, thank you.

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On 9/12/2019 at 6:59 PM, Crash_Cart said:

The purpose of ID badges is so the patient can identify who the different staff are.

I think a display of alphabet soup letters will only confuse them. They have absolutely no idea what any of those letters mean, nor do they really care anyways.

From what I can tell it is the norm for many/most hospitals to have staff wear plastic IDs that are larger than their name badge, that say "RN" or "LPN". I would rather it say just "NURSE" since that's all people are really trying to determine by staring at someone's chest anyway.

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